At Best Buy, people come with tents

Morgan Mathews, 15, and Amanda Mathews, 18, both of Davison waited outside Best Buy in Flint Township since 9p.m. Thursday night, living on 'mountain dew and pretzels' to buy a laptop on Friday at when the doors open at 5a.m.
Tim Jagielo|The Flint Journal

FLINT TOWNSHIP -- Want to be first in line at Best Buy on Black Friday? It's not easy. Wally Czarnik takes it to the extreme.

Around 6 p.m. Wednesday, he and 11 of his friends arrived at Best Buy and pitched a tent. He had propane heaters, a portable stove, food, a TV, a X-Box and lots of warm clothes.

"My family doesn't really do anything special for Thanksgiving," he said. "I thought this would be fun."

This is the third year he's done it. The 19-year-old from Davison was just taking his tent down just before 3 a.m.

So why go through all the trouble?

"I gotta get the deals," he said. "I want the $200 laptop."

Czarnik's Thanksgiving meal?

Heated up turkey on the stove he brought along.

Way toward the back of the line, which was about 300 people deep at 3 a.m,, were Michelle Pillainayagam and her brother Michael.

There were no tents for them, just some food and coffee.

"(The line) was a little surprising, but not as bad as I thought it would be," she said.

Her brother was all for getting the deals, but waiting more than 40 hours for them is a bit much for him, he said.